Chee, et al.
Florence Chee (fchee@sfu.ca)
Richard Smith (smith@sfu.ca)
Is Electronic Community an Addictive Substance?
EverQuest and its Implications for Addiction Policy.
Florence Chee is a Graduate student in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada. With a background in Anthropology and Honours Communication, her primary academic pursuits include research on the social implications of technology and online gaming communities, as well as how ethnographic narrative can inform technological design. Florence is part of the research staff actively involved in SFU's Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology (CPROST).
Richard Smith is an Associate Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He is also Director of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology (CPROST) at SFU's Harbour Centre campus, in downtown Vancouver.
Dr. Smith studies the social construction of our relationships with technology. He is currently researching: 1) new tools to help designers and policy makers think about the future in creative and constructive ways, 2) the role of social capital in clusters of high technology firms in the new media sector, and 3) new applications for information technology in support of scholarly publishing.
Abstract
This paper examines the tension between human agency and social structure in the policies governing addictive substances. Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest, a so-called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), is an example of an electronic community with many labels. It has been lauded as an environment in which people can express themselves and feel a sense of camaraderie. At the same time, it has given rise to numerous debates that it is an addictive game and playing it is a condition for which people can and should seek medical treatment. The game has been implicated in cases of suicide, as well as the inspiration for policies regarding game usage and warning labels. Through an ethnographic study we review the role played by community in EverQuest, testing the potency of the game's reportedly addictive properties, while attempting to unpack the role of the gaming community in fostering that addiction.
This study explores the experiences of EverQuest players through participant observation of the EverQuest community and in-depth personal interviews of experienced members. Are players addicted to the game because of something in its design that warrants a warning label, or is it something more than that? Is it the attraction to community? This combination of insights serve to elicit information about the range of perspectives on games and addiction, as they are indeed in contention with one another.
In our conclusion, we consider the possibility that addiction is a construct that comes from a human need for community. If so, is it appropriate to think of addiction as a disease by which people are helpless victims? Or is it a choice? Can obsessive behaviours involving electronic community be considered an addiction, and the community itself an 'addictive substance?'
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